The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)
Chapter 501: a home is a home because it’s filled with people who love you regardless

Chapter 501: a home is a home because it’s filled with people who love you regardless

Natha did say it was all right, but I still felt guilty about all the crying and mood swings, especially to the servants.

It wasn’t every day, but they also couldn’t call Natha every time I got those mood swings to calm me down. When Natha wasn’t available, they had to face my changing moods and unreasonable demands by themselves, because I would never calm down until those demands were fulfilled or Natha came to pick me up in his arms and soothe me.

When I was in that space, not even the vassals and my kids could do anything.

That was shy I felt so bad for the servants, especially Mara and Panne who were at the forefront of my hormonal attack.

"I’m sorry..." I sniffed while shoving a tart winter berry I just demanded into my mouth. My eyes were swollen from crying while waiting for the whole logistics department staff to look for the out-of-season berry.

The servants tried their best to soothe me by giving me confectionaries with that specific berry flavor, but I only wanted the fresh one, so I threw the candies and sweets away like a kid in a tantrum. Even Jade got scared because of it. Seeing the surprised servants and the scared little bird, I was disappointed in myself for acting like that, and ended up crying again until Arta came running with a basket of winter berries she procured from who-knows-where.

And like magic, my mind was soothed from the first bite of the tart berry.

I stared at the bright purple-colored berry Mara had carefully washed and prepared for me. How could I cause panic and make a whole department run around in panic just for these little fruits? I looked at the servants and Arta with a mix of guilt and gratitude.

"I’m sorry..." I started to sob again, but my mouth couldn’t stop eating. "It tastes so good...thank you..." I sniffed. "I’m sorry...thank you..."

Instead of getting annoyed, the servants reassured me that it was all right. Panne tucked me nicely in my scarf, and Mara stroked my shoulder and upper arms to soothe me. Arta, who was staying to accompany me along with Aunt Nezja, helped me soothe the scared and confused Jase while giggling.

"You know, Young Master..." Arta propped her chin while staring at me with narrowed eyes. "I like seeing you like this."

I gasped in shock. "W-w-why?"

"Because you are always sweet and adorable and innocent," she said, prompting my empty mouth to open wider from bewilderment.

What kind of description was that?!

"So it’s fun seeing you letting go like this," she continued. "Crying in frustration and getting angry because you didn’t get what you want--since I’ve never seen you do those things before."

That wasn’t true?! I felt like I did all of those before, just...maybe...not in front of her?

Aunt Nezja cleared her throat and Arta flinched, adding swiftly. "Ah, I don’t mean that I want you to keep experiencing this...mood swings, Young Master. It’s just...it’s okay for you to do those things or be like this without feeling guilty or like you are inconveniencing anyone."

"But..."

"I agree, Young Master," Mara said while placing my afternoon herbal drink on the table. "It’s our job to take care of you, so you don’t have to feel like you’re making our life miserable."

"B-but..."

Before I could make any rebuttal, the other servants gave their agreement to Mara’s words. I would like to tell them that they shouldn’t feel like they had to put up with it just because Natha paid them well or was afraid of being fired, but...they looked so sincere that I couldn’t say it.

And then, the quiet Panne shut down my attempt even more. "If anything, you didn’t give us enough work to justify our wages, Young Master."

"Huh?"

Naturally, I was super confused. Even the panic-inducing berry was forgotten temporarily.

"That’s right," Mara chuckled while playfully putting a berry in my mouth. "Our Young Master is very sweet and well-mannered that we never need to work hard, never even whined or complained that we become confused if we actually do any work at all."

"But you did? You provided my needs as per Natha’s instruction and ran errands for me?"

The servants giggled and Mara shook her head. "Sending messages to the research tower or fetching jellies for Sir Jade could hardly be called an errand."

[Jade like jellies! They do a good job serving Jade jellies!] the little bird nodded without truly understanding the conversation.

Well...fine, it was just trivial stuff. But, it wasn’t like I had a lot of things to do in the first place except for studying with Eruha. All I did was play around and enjoy my life with my husband’s seemingly bottomless coffers.

Perhaps because I looked so conflicted about their statement, Mara smiled and suddenly told me a story. "I worked as a personal maid for several big Houses before, and believe me, Young Master--you are a Saint compared to them."

That was a bombastic embarrassing way to call me, but my gossip-hungry sense was tingling, so I looked at him with eyes open wide demanding more explanation.

"I won’t mention any name, but..." Mara glanced at Aunt Nezja first, and when she merely continued her embroidery without objecting, Mara continued. "There were a lot of things that made me want to either run away or commit some crimes."

Hearing such a thing coming out of her gently smiling face was rather scary. Not as scary as Angwi’s smirk, but still...

"Taking care of their needs is of course a basic job that I would gladly fulfill, even if I had to lay down the whole closet for an hour for my charge to pick the very first outfit they tried, or mend a giant rip in less than an hour," she said. "But sometimes, they make us servants do things that are outside of our scope of job, or threw such a huge tantrum that the room got damaged and we got injured."

Injuring someone during a tantrum? Oh--I was so scared I would end up doing something like that, and unconsciously gasped.

"That wasn’t even the worst part," she shook her head, and my eyes opened wider. "The worst part was that they got angry because of someone else, lashing out at the servants, and at the end, told us to apologize because we failed to keep them in a good mood. They even cut our salary as punishment because it seemed the fact that we apologized meant we were guilty and deserved to be punished."

I was so flabbergasted that I had to shove a fistful of berries to keep my mouth busy. Otherwise, I might curse in front of Jade for that absurdity.

"I remember when one of my past charges said they wanted to eat something, but they didn’t know what. They told the cooks to keep making things, take a small bite, and discard the whole plate. It continued until dozens of meals were made and in the end, they said they were not hungry anymore, but were disappointed because the cooks couldn’t satisfy their tastebud. In the end, the whole kitchen stuff was fired."

"Juz laik zat?" I asked through my full mouth.

"Just like that," Mara nodded while dabbing a napkin on the corner of my mouth to wipe some berry juice stain. "The other servants had to fill in the cooks and the kitchen staff before the replacement came. Of course, no extra pay was given."

What the hell?! That was a violation of labor rights!

"And that’s just a tiny bit of the unreasonable things those people did," Mara shrugged. "Sometimes, they told us to fetch something without telling us any specification, just--that thing in the cupboard, or that table I saw somewhere, or the cake in that person’s last month’s afternoon tea--or something like that. If we got it wrong, we got punished."

"Awful!" I managed to respond after swallowing the tart berries. "Isn’t that against hum...I mean, worker right?! You should report it!"

"I did," Mara nodded while flashing a refreshing smile. "I reported it to His Lordship and he recruited me to work here."

...oh!

For some reason, my heart skipped and my cheeks warmed. Perhaps because Natha was mentioned briefly, hehe...

Oh, but...

"Alright, I get what you’re trying to say," I nodded, before frowning and firming my voice. "But them being awful didn’t mean what I did was not!"

"No, that’s not what I want to say, Young Master," she suddenly kneeled before my chair and held my hands, looking at me with a gentle smile. "What I want to say is that, unlike those people, we all know you didn’t mean to be like this. The fact that you feel guilty and worried about putting in more work for us is enough proof."

"That’s right, Young Master!" the servants readily supported her words.

"And we understand that, which is why we don’t mind it," she said. "We don’t mind it even if you ask us to do more after this, because, as Panne had said, we feel like we hardly do any work for the amount of money His Lordship paid us. You hardly make any demands, you feel grateful and say thank you even when we only do our basic job, and you even give us many gifts you personally choose."

Mara smiled and briefly touched the brooch I gave the servants from the underworld city. At this point, my face was boiling from shame, because she made it seem like I did something grandiose. But it wasn’t. I was just...I didn’t think I did anything special.

"Personally, I agree with Lady Dhuarta," Mara continued. "We’d like it if you continue to be more demanding and openly express your emotions like this."

Uhh...

While I was still flustered by her words, Aunt Nezja broke her silence and added for good measure. "Valen, you shouldn’t feel guilty and think that taking care of you made them feel miserable. They like doing it because they adore you, and it’s an insult to their loyalty and dedication if you think they feel terrible for doing their job."

I gasped and turned to look at the servants. Mara looked a bit embarrassed and corrected it slightly. "No, no--you weren’t insulting us, Young Master. Just...please don’t feel guilty and let us take care of you. Don’t hold back thinking you might put us in trouble or anything, yes?"

Ugh...

Slowly, I nodded, and the smiles on their faces told me the deep care they had for me; something that was not just professionalism.

Aunt Nezja was right. I was insulting them when I thought they put up with me because they were paid and didn’t want to get fired.

Sorry...I’m sorry...

And thank you.

Thank you for being a part of my home.